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oordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa said after a ministerial coordination meeting on Wednesday that staple food stocks were sufficient for the fasting month and the Idul Fitri Islamic holiday, and that the government would take all necessary measures to maintain food prices at a reasonable level.

Hatta said that the ministry had instructed relevant ministries and bodies ' including the Agriculture Ministry, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) ' to monitor production and distribution and to keep prices at a stable rate.

'The supply [of staple foods] is adequate and business players from Kadin are ready to help maintain the stocks,' Hatta told reporters.

He said the government would specifically monitor the supply and prices of seven commodities, namely beef, horticultural products, cooking oil, chicken, sugar, wheat flour and rice.

Demand for the commodities usually surge during Ramadhan (fasting month) -- which this year will begin in early July and will be concluded with the Idul Fitri celebration in early August -- and often lead to scarcity and price spikes.

Despite claiming that the supply of all seven commodities was sufficient, Hatta said the government had to clamp down on beef and horticultural products.

To prevent a sharp increase in beef prices during Idul Fitri, the government has appointed Bulog to import additional beef out of this year's import quota of 80,000 tons. During Idul Fitri last year, the price of beef nearly doubled from between Rp 40,000 (US$4.04) and Rp 50,000 per kilogram to between Rp 75,000 and Rp 80,000 per kilogram due to a supply shortage.

Agriculture Minister Suswono said his ministry had issued a regulation this week to allow Bulog to import regulated commodities outside its annual quotas to help stabilize prices. The agency will have to send a request letter to the Trade Ministry, which will set the allocated quota for the agency to enable it to begin importing the commodities.

'To stabilize prices, Bulog has to import 1,500 tons to 3,000 tons of beef for two months ahead of the fasting month and Idul Fitri,' Suswono said.

Besides appointing Bulog as an importer, the government has also sped up live cattle imports allocated for the last quarter of this year, expecting to provide an additional 8,000 tons of beef to meet the needs of people during the holiday season.

As for horticultural commodities, mainly shallots and red peppers, Suswono said the ministry would take any steps needed to maintain prices during the observances, as the current weather anomaly might hamper mid-year harvests and cause the products to decompose faster. If shallot production was abundant, Suswono said, the ministry would consider exporting surplus shallots rather than leaving them to rot and inflict losses on farmers, which would further affect their price.

Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan said separately that the prices of staple foods were relatively stable at the moment, adding that the price of beef had fallen to below Rp 90,000 per kilogram ' equal to the price earlier this year ' after the government started to accelerate imports of live cattle.

'We expect that by Ramadhan, the price of beef will have come down to around Rp 76,000 per kilogram, which was the average price last year,' Gita said.